Picking a Style

I've been thinking about submitting a few recent successful brews to homebrew competitions. So, by extension, I've been mentally placing my homebrews in style categories. For those who aren't familiar with how this works, homebrew competitions are usually grouped by style (i.e., all the stouts will be judged together, all the pilseners will be judged together, etc), and it is the responsibility of the brewer to declare the style of his entries upon submission. I can brew the best witbier in the universe, but if I enter it as a porter, it will lose. Formal style guidelines are published by the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP), and pretty much every competition follows these. But, since homebrewers are a creative lot who tend to push the envelope, sometimes it can be difficult to select the correct style. I present an example: an amber ale I brewed this winter.

A headier-than-intended pour of my "amber ale"

I have both a glass of my amber ale and the BJCP guidelines in front of me as I type this. So, I've been calling this an amber ale, which it surely is, so it seems like 10A, American Amber Ale, would be a logical place to start. Here's the catch: my brew has a hearty dose of Munich malt in it, which is not typical of an American Amber Ale. BJCP says the aroma should contain "low to moderate hop aroma" and that "moderately low to moderately high maltiness balances and sometimes masks the hop presentation, and usually shows a moderate caramel character."  In general, my beer fits this description. The Centennial hops are noticeable, but overshadowed a bit by the maltiness. The malts are a bit on the caramel side (I did use a respectable amount of crystal malt), but here again is where it becomes complicated. The Munich malt character is dominant (Munich malt reminds me of wet autumn leaves that are starting to decompose. Unusual association, I know. If you aren't familiar with Munich malt, get an authentic German Oktoberfest; they are mostly, often entirely, Munich malt), and the guidelines make no provision for that. As for flavor, the BJCP standard strongly resembles that for the aroma: "moderate to high hop flavor from American hop varieties" and "malt flavors are moderate to strong, and usually show an initial malty sweetness followed by a moderate caramel flavor (and sometimes other character malts in lesser amounts)." Again, the hop profile is ok. But here is a problem with the malts. There is room for Munich in this description, as "other character malts," but only in "lesser amounts." I have a feeling this would be the downfall of my brew if I entered it as an American Amber Ale, because the Munich is far more obvious than the caramel.

So where does it fit, then? Try to be open minded here. The judges have no idea what I intended to brew. All they have is a sample of the beer and the style I entered it as. With that in mind, let's look at another style. With all that Munich malt, how about either Vienna or Oktoberfest (3A or 3B)? Both of these styles are lagers, and the brew in question is an ale, but the judges don't have to know that. If it has lager characteristics, the judges will never know that there is residual melibiose in the beer (trivia tidbit: that is the true difference between lager and ale yeast. Melibiose is a disaccharide sugar that lager yeast can ferment and ale yeast cannot). The flavor description of Vienna very closely describes my brew, and Oktoberfest isn't too far off, so maybe I'm onto something. But the aroma could be an issue. Oktoberfest requires "no hop aroma." Right now, the Centennial hops are still noticeable. However, the essential oils that provide hop aroma are unstable and decay with time (actually fairly quickly). So if I let this age, the hop aroma would dissipate and it might fit into the Oktoberfest style. But this beer isn't designed to age, and aging would probably develop other problems that would make it not fare well in competition regardless of category. So I'll nix that option. But, it's a moot point anyway, since both Oktoberfest and Vienna state that "caramel aroma is inappropriate." While the Munich aroma dominates, that caramel is there and unavoidable. Time to look at more styles.

At this point in becomes tempting to go to category 23-- Specialty Beer. This is simply a catchall category the BJCP added for crazy exploratory brews. Its only style descriptor is that the beer can't fit into another style. I would always hesitate to enter a Specialty Beer, preferring to enter as a classic style if possible. This is especially true of my amber ale, since while I'm having trouble categorizing it, it really is not an unusual-seeming beer, and would be lost among all the wildly experimental stuff that gets submitted in that category. So I'll look on.

Flipping through the categories, English Brown Ale (11) seems plausible. It's divided into three styles: Mild (11A), Southern English Brown (11B), and Northern English Brown (11C).  My beer obviously doesn't fit Mild, so I'll skip that. Southern English Brown emphasizes fruitiness, so that one won't fly. Then comes Northern English Brown. While in my mind I had no intention of this being a brown ale, all of the style descriptors seem to fit. The guidelines describe "gentle to moderate malt sweetness, with a nutty, lightly caramelly character and a medium-dry to dry finish. Malt may also have a toasted, biscuity, or toffee-like character." The Munich character of my brew could easily pass as a combination of nutty and toasted malts. The description also allows for a certain amount of hops, which is good. And what's this? The appearance should be "dark amber to reddish-brown." I suppose my dark amber beer fits quite nicely, then. The only place I can see the guidelines distinctly differing is in carbonation level, preferring less than is in my beer. But that's minor enough to not be a terrible loss of points. So, while I'll continue to call this an amber ale when discussing it, if I enter it in a competition, it will go as a Northern English Brown.

While being bound by style categories may seem restrictive, especially for the adventurous brewer, it is unavoidable when entering competitions. It is important to take care to enter in the appropriate category, and the appropriate category may not be immediately obvious. So be open minded. And if you can't settle on a style, just keep the beer to yourself where you know it will be appreciated.

Cheers,
--joe